J3/02-183

Date:     April 26, 2002
To:       J3
From:     Dick Hendrickson
Subject:  A change to type parameter inquiry

In Ccomp.lang.fortran Gary Scott wrote

 > Page 106, 6.1.3 Type Parameter Inquiry - Neato - but I wonder if it
 > should have EXACTLY the same syntax as a derived type reference.  It
 > seems to reduce program clarity slightly if you can't readily
 > differentiate between derived type references and type parameter
 > inquiries.

The suggestion is to change the type parameter inquiry to use "?"
instead of "%".  This makes it obvious that something different
is happening and avoids confusion when there are several types
available and some the use the same term but sometimes as a
component name and sometimes as a parameter.  Perhaps that's
poor coding style, but not everybody has complete control over
the insides of the types they use.

Proposal.

Page 106:6, change to
R615       type-parem-inquiry     is      designator ? type-parem-name

If this is accepted, we'll need to make a pass through the examples
to make sure all of the type parameter inquiries are changed.